An introductory trot

Tonight I joined a "roundtable discussion" on how to get the parish to take ownership of youth ministry ... subtitle How to Get Volunteers. It was a great discussion and helped me to generate some ideas for starting anew in youth ministry. While I have been re-reading "My First Two Years in Youth Ministry", which has helped me to put a plan together, this discussion with other real live ministry leaders was a great jumpstart. Here are a few highlight thoughts:

Asking people to volunteer is our opportunity to help people grow closer to God and serve him. (this one kind of makes it easier to make those personal invitations, doesn't it?)

Never say "I don't have enough volunteers" but rather, "I have so many volunteers that I don't know what to do with them all" To achieve this, one great idea is to create a database of parents and youth. In this database, include the occupations and hobbies of the parents so that you can target the right people for the right volunteer opportunities. This assists people in finding their niche to offer their gifts and talents. (i.e. there is a mom who scrapbooks as a hobby. Ask her if you can send her your pictures all year and she would create a scrapbook for you... you can display her work in your youth room / office after each event and when the next event pages come in you can put the older ones in a book and display the new ones)

Another idea that came up was to send b-day cards to the kids - this is one that has been tossed around for years only I have never worked in a parish where this was feasible UNTIL NOW!!! Yipee - I can actually do this one!!!

Working for a small parish will surely have it's challenges, but right now I just see a world of opportunity. What will tomorrow bring?